The Tax Justice Network (TJN), a UK-based advocacy group, recently published the 2015 edition of its biannual Financial Secrecy Index, wherein it ranks the top 10 most financially secretive jurisdictions worldwide. According to the TJN, “This unique index combines a secrecy score with a weighting to create a ranking of the secrecy jurisdictions and countries that most actively promote secrecy in global finance.”
And, the study found that most countries’ secrecy scores have improved as a result of the various global and regional financial reporting initiatives, like FATCA, the common reporting standard (CRS) and automatic information exchange. However, these initiatives are experiencing pushback from lobbying groups, and those looking for secrecy are shifting their focus to other areas, such as trusts, where less action has been taken. As a result, certain jurisdictions that have made much-publicized progress in these areas still appear on the list, including a couple that readers may find surprising.
